[net.micro.amiga] Software: 00.00

ROKICKI@SU-SUSHI.ARPA (04/14/86)

From: Tomas G. Rokicki <ROKICKI@SU-SUSHI.ARPA>

In reply to Jim Reich:

	Have you ever tried to SUPPORT a software package?  Help users
who don't understand directories, don't have their printer hooked up
correctly, think control-\ means "control-\"?  And then, the other end
of the spectrum, those expert users who want more features?  Or how about
revisions, bug fixes (any appreciable program has bugs; ask any compiler
writer) and changes to the operating system?  It very quickly becomes a
full time job, and it continues long after the program has sold most of
its copies.  Books don't require the level of support software does; most
people can read and turn pages.  (Uh, scratch that, I really don't know
that most people can read.)  The risk is great as well; for every program
that makes it, there are a bunch that don't.

	Give me a break.  Borland took a risk; they banked on selling
enough copies to make enough money to offset their large prices.  At
the moment, there simply are not enough Amigas out to take those risks.

								-tom
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